Strike In Safe Zone Kills 40

GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone in the south of the Palestinian territory killed 40 people and wounded 60 others, with the Israeli army saying it had targeted a Hamas command centre in the area.

Yesterday’s strike hit Al-Mawasi – in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis – which was designated a safe zone by the Israeli military early in the war, with tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there.

However, Israel’s military has occasionally carried out operations in and around the area, including a strike in July which killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, and which Gaza authorities said killed more than 90 people.

Gaza civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair said “40 martyrs and 60 injured were recovered and transferred” to nearby hospitals.

“Our crews are still working to recover 15 missing people as a result of targeting the tents of the displaced in Mawasi, Khan Yunis,” Mr Mughair said.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said people sheltering in the camp had not been warned of the strike.

“More than 20 to 40 tents were completely damaged,” he said, adding the strike left behind “three deep craters”.

“There are entire families who disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Yunis massacre.”

The Israeli military said its aircraft had “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control centre embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Yunis”.

“The terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated Humanitarian Area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops,” it added.

Hamas said that claims its fighters were present at the scene of the strike were “a blatant lie”.

Over the course of the war, Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields, an accusation the group denies.

From 1200 inhabitants per square kilometre before the war, the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone now houses “between 30,000 and 34,000 people per square kilometre”, and its protected area shrank from 50 square kilometres to 41, the UN has calculated.

The US, Qatar and Egypt have been mediating in efforts to forge a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, but talks remain stalled.